Iranian activist’s last words repeated in capital murder trial over pair of ‘honor killings’ in Houston area

Ali Mahwood-Awad Irsan is shown in court Monday, June 25, 2018 in Houston holding a paper written in Arabic and colored with orange marker of the mantra, There is no god but God and Mohammad is Gods Prophet." Irsan was charged with capital murder because his alleged crime involved multiple victims  his daughters best friend, Gelareh Bagherzadeh, an Iranian medical student and activist, and his daughters husband, Coty Beavers, 28. Both slayings, authorities said, were driven by the anger of Irsan, a conservative Muslim, over his daughter Nesreens decision to marry Beavers, a Christian from Houston. ( Melissa Phillip / Houston Chronicle ) less

Ali Mahwood-Awad Irsan is shown in court Monday, June 25, 2018 in Houston holding a paper written in Arabic and colored with orange marker of the mantra, There is no god but God and Mohammad is Gods ... more

Photo: Melissa Phillip, Staff / Houston Chronicle

Photo: Melissa Phillip, Staff / Houston Chronicle

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Ali Mahwood-Awad Irsan is shown in court Monday, June 25, 2018 in Houston holding a paper written in Arabic and colored with orange marker of the mantra, There is no god but God and Mohammad is Gods Prophet." Irsan was charged with capital murder because his alleged crime involved multiple victims  his daughters best friend, Gelareh Bagherzadeh, an Iranian medical student and activist, and his daughters husband, Coty Beavers, 28. Both slayings, authorities said, were driven by the anger of Irsan, a conservative Muslim, over his daughter Nesreens decision to marry Beavers, a Christian from Houston. ( Melissa Phillip / Houston Chronicle ) less

Ali Mahwood-Awad Irsan is shown in court Monday, June 25, 2018 in Houston holding a paper written in Arabic and colored with orange marker of the mantra, There is no god but God and Mohammad is Gods ... more

Photo: Melissa Phillip, Staff / Houston Chronicle

Iranian activist’s last words repeated in capital murder trial over pair of ‘honor killings’ in Houston area

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A former boyfriend who heard the last words of a slain Iranian activist and medical student while on a cellphone call as she was shot to death in Houston told jurors Wednesday about the chilling conversation.

The testimony is part of a capital murder case prosecutors are presenting against Ali Irsan, 60, a Jordanian-American charged with two separate “honor killings” including the fatal shooting of activist Gelareh Bagherzadeh outside her parent’s Galeria-area townhouse in January 2012.

Bandar, who dated Bagherzadeh a year before her death, choked up as he testified in the third day of Irsan’s trial, a case that shocked Houston and has seen international news coverage. The young activist was the best friend of Irsan’s daughter.

Irsan, a devout Muslim, is accused of killing his daughter’s husband and Bagherzadeh in 2012 because his daughter, Nesreen, converted to Christianity and married a Christian man.

He is also suspected of plotting to kill his daughter in a effort to restore the family’s honor. Irsan was charged in the killings after authorities convicted him in a scheme to obtain governments benefits by filing false claims for Social Security disability.

Earlier in the day, witnesses testified that Irsan called 911 and told police Nesreen was trying to poison him with anthrax stolen from Houston’s MD Anderson hospital where she worked.

There was no evidence any chemicals were missing or that Irsan’s daughter did anything wrong, prosecutors have said.

Prosecutors have called a number of police officers in an attempt show that Irsan repeatedly called authorities on his daughter with false stories.

“It was believed to be anthrax,” said Darren Hess, director of Montgomery County Homeland Security who went to Irsan’s rural four-acre compound to investigate.

Irsan called 911 on Sept. 28, 2011, and told police that he found a rubber glove with powder residue under his chicken coop. He said he was suspicious that his daughter, Nesreen, was trying to poison him.

He seemed to want her arrested and brought back to his home, prosecutors said in court.

Irsan’s defense team has argued that Irsan is not connected to either shooting and that police are trying to pin both on Irsan because they do not know what happened.

The trial, in state District Judge Jan Krocker’s court, is expected to last six to eight weeks.